Amid years-long decline, shrimp-baiting starts

Starting Friday, shrimp-baiting opens for South Carolinians who have purchased a $25 license and for non-residents who have paid 20 times that.

South Carolina’s shrimp-baiting licenses peaked in 1998 at 17,497 but declined to 8,262 licenses in 2009. For the season that starts Friday, just more than 5,000 shrimp-baiting licenses had been sold so far. An S.C. Department of Natural Resources staff member said the pre-season sales appeared to be slightly lower than prior years but comparison data was not readily accessible.

Shrimp-baiting involves putting 10 poles in the water. It’s not to be confused with the often-maligned deep-hole shrimping.

South Carolina lawmakers imposed a licensing requirement on deep-hole shrimping in 2009, in part to regulate Georgians who were taking advantage of their neighbor state’s then-unregulated shrimp free-for-all. To engage in deep-hole shrimping, a saltwater fishing license is required.

The activity is dismissed as a non-sport by some anglers. It involves dropping a duct tape-rimmed net over the shrimp and cleaning out the entire cluster of shrimp. Some say the practice interrupts the creatures’ life cycle.

Deep-hole shrimping prompts such disdain among some that one sportsman hung up on a reporter — he didn’t want to discuss the practice.

But Collins said territorial tension between the two states’ fishermen is easily apparent.

“I’ve been over to South Carolina, and they see the Georgia sticker, I have a commercial license to fish over there, and been told get back to Georgia,” said Collins. “I’ve been cussed out by a guy over there.”